Τρίτη, 2 Φεβρουαρίου, 2010

Aleppo's Souk by Bryan Denton for The New York Times

It is not often that new chapters open in whatever we do, think, love, dream and desire. I have the feeling that such a chapter has opened for me when I recently heard a story on the city of Aleppo in Northern Syria in the National Public Radio of the US, by Deborah Amos. This is what kick started a process of preliminary research on Aleppo and its secret charms. In what follows, I have assembled some of the results.

Maps courtesy of the New York Times, January 2010

Aleppo is a city very near the border of Syria with Turkey, and according to the historians it is on what used to be the silk road. As Gail Simmons writes in her article on the Silk Road, the city’s name «in Arabic its name is Halab, derived from the word for milk as the Prophet Abraham is said to have milked his cow on the Citadel here – it has long been Syria’s prime commercial centre, a major axis on the northerly route of the Silk Road in Syria. Aleppo remained an important metropolis even when, by the 16th century, the opening of new maritime routes between Europe and the Far East saw the eventual decline of the overland Silk Road.»

LIONEL BEEHNER’s article in the New York Times a week ago (24 January 2010) gives an excellent description of the city and its treasures.

Okra with prunes and apricots (from Poopa Dweck's book "The Aromas of Aleppo")

In his article for REUTERS, Khaled Yacoub Oweis presents among others, a young chef who returned to Aleppo after spending some years in France.

A gateway in the old walls of Aleppo - Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

Lara Dunston & Terence Carter in their article published in the Jazeera Airlines magazine, present one of the city’s most successful restauranteurs, Dala Touma.

Bulgur wheat shells filled with ground meat - from Poopa Dweck's book

The Financial Times have published back in November 2009 an article by Mary Taylor Simeti on Syria’s food. I noted the brain fritters in Smeroud and the visit to the kitchens of the Pistache d’Alep, which make and sell one of the best baklava in the world!

Al-Hareer Restaurant serves kibbeh (minced lamb) - Bryan Denton for the New York Times

Practical Stuff

If after all that you are ready to go to Aleppo, do not forget to read Gail Simmons’ very informative and useful article! Gail has a blog which I found extremely interesting and well written!

Epilogue

Deborah Amos concludes her story by saying: «When it comes to opening the economy — and the country — it turns out that food is a better draw than ancient history.» Is she right? I do not know, but I will certainly try to find out how good the food is in Aleppo. Especially now that I have established its proximity to Gaziantep, the SE Turkey capital of baklava.

Σάββατο, 30 Ιανουαρίου, 2010

Today I wanted to eat lentils in a different way, and I decided to marry them with meat balls and a shredded potato patty. This is the story.

I got two nice pieces of beef from the chest. The bones I used to make the broth for the lentils, and the meat for the meat balls.

Grinding the meat yourself is a great pleasure and makes a big difference in the end result, So I assembled my little meat grinder and got to work.

The quality of this ground meat is beyond description! The meat is full of flavor and tender!

In the meantime, the lentils were boiling mildly, in the stock of the bones.

Th lentils are not visible yet, but you get the picture. A note of importance here, the lentils will not be served as a soup, but as stew, which means that the liquid in the lentils will be at a minimum.

In parallel, shred the potatoes and drain them well. Mix with dill, parsley, coriander, egg and a bit of flour, to absord the remaining liquid. Season moderately with salt and pepper, cover and refrigerate for one hour.

The mix for the meatballs is quite simple. Add chopped garlic and hot peppers, mint, bread crumbs, a bit of olive oil, egg, salt and pepper to the meet, mix well cover and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Shape the balls, cover them with flour, and let it stick for about five minutes before frying them .

The potato patties are easy to fry, use medium heat and be patient, they need about 5 minutes, and require to be turned many times.

Serve the lentils in a deep dish, place a potato patty in the middle, and two meatballs on top.

This is a dish of varied flavors and textures. The lentils are soft, melt in the mouth, the meatballs are medium soft to crunchy, and the patty is on the very crunchy end of the spectrum. The meatballs steal the show in the texture, but the lentils and the patty are strong competitors in the flavor zone.

Πέμπτη, 28 Ιανουαρίου, 2010

Today’s dish is made with one of the ugliest looking fishes, the Scorpaena Scrofa, the Orange – Red Scorpion Fish. As there is a good side to everything, even ugliness, this fish has very firm white flesh that provides taste and texture. I usually prepare this fish boiled and then prepare a soup. This time I decided to use all the vegetables and the broth to make a risotto and serve the fish on top of it, with a sauce.

The key to success in boiling the fish is the mix of vegetables in the pot.

I usually boil them first, remove them, and then boil the fish in the liquid.

Once the veggies are done, I remove them from the pot and place the fish. I cut it in two parts, as they require different cooking times. The tail end is ready in 15 minutes, the other requires 25 minutes. Once they are done, remove them and give the broth a good boil to reduce.

I slice the veggies in small pieces and place them in the risotto, to give more color and flavor. It works, but of course I leave the potatoes out.

When serving, let the risotto cool down in the hexagonal container before placing the fish on top and removing it.

Once the fish is placed on top, remove the container, and serve the sauce on top of the dish. The sauce is made with the broth, that has been reduced to a very thick liquid, adding a touch a flour, lemon juice and chili pepper flakes.

The sauce is to a large extent what powers the dish to a supreme combination of hot, sour and fully flavored combination of textures.

«Grace Kelly honeymooned at this turn-of-the-century palace at the top of the Spanish Steps, and it’s still the hotel of choice for many of today’s celebs and stylish tastemakers in search of old-world elegance (Gwyneth, TomKat, and Victoria Beckham are all regulars). Renowned for its personalized service, the Hassler is a family affair — a place where guest relations are taken very seriously. The 95 stately rooms are a checklist of classic good taste, with elaborate moldings, gilded furniture, French silks, 16th-century antiques, Limoges porcelain, playful frescoes, and marble, marble, marble, plus mod cons like flat-screen TV’s. Imàgo, its modern Italian restaurant, has heart-stopping views of St. Peter’s Basilica and Rome’s terracotta-tiled roofs. And the concierges can accommodate just about any request, including mapping out routes through the Villa Borghese gardens, near the hotel.»

I was staying at a nearby hotel and walked the distance, passing through Via Veneto. It is a beautiful part of Rome, and I highly recommend staying in this area.

The view from inside the Imago rooftop is amazing.To the extent than when I saw it, I started having second thoughts about the food, as one of the golden rules of the restaurant business is that when the view is stunning, the food sucks. Thankfully, I was proven wrong.

View of Rome from Imago

With determination I moved on and got a table. The clients of the restaurant are varied. You have the visitors who come for the views and the ones who come for the food and the elegant atmosphere. In one of the tables there was a family with two kids, with both grandparents, celebrating the birthday of one of the kids. Wonderful «tableau vivant», with the grandmother reminding me of one of the powerful female figures in the black and white Fellini movies.

Lets move to the food now, and the gastronomic menu the chef prepared. The menu overall is structured in three stages. Stage I is the «delicate» one, with two appetizer dishes, both of them seafood based. Stage II is the «taste explosion» set of two half-portions of first courses. Both are strong in taste and flavor. Stage III is a combination of two half-portions of main dishes.

The first starter was raw fish of the day. I do not recall the name of the fish, but it was quite tender, moist and tasty. The high point of the dish was the combination of the raw fish with pears infused with grappa. Personally I do not understand the foamy bits, in my eyes they are like aesthetic pollution, but lets ignore them, everyone these days seems to put a little foam here and there!

The next dish was an imaginative preparation of scallops, as they they were stuffed with mozzarella and then fried.The chef added a touch of black truffle to the finished dish, which was extremely subtle in taste and texture, a true delight. The dish is extremely delicate, and the frying must be very quick and swift, otherwise the scallop is destroyed.

The continuation was more intense in flavors and powerful, as the chef prepared pheasant ravioli with cauliflower puree and truffle-flavored honey. Full-bodied, intense flavor, and meaty texture were the characteristics of the dish.

The dish that followed was the star of the menu. Capellini pasta with smoked eel. A divine dish, one that I would include in the Italian Gastronomic All – Time Menu, if there was ever one. A magic of textures and flavors emanates from the dish. The chef came by and had a chat with me after the dinner was over, and he more or less agreed that this dish is his masterpiece. It is quite interesting, that of all the dishes in the restaurant of one of the most expensive hotels in the world, the best is one based on the humble eel of the Lazio region and capellini pasta, which you can find everywhere in Italy. The other golden rule of gastronomy, that is to use the materials of the terroir is yet again proven 100% correct! The chef had at his disposal the most expensive materials in some of the dishes. Yet his signature dish is the one that serves humbly the tradition of the Lazio region. To be correct, I belive that the dish is also traditional fare in the central regions of Italy, like Umbria.

The next dish was a fish and shrimp combination, that left me untouched, as it was rather faceless.

The last dish of the menu was excellent! Roast pigeonwith all the game flavor of the world! Nothing beats that! And it was roasted to perfection.

I found the serving of artichokes with the pigeon an excellent idea!

To conclude the excellent dinner, the chef offered a sweet tray, where the pistacchio canolo stole the show!

Chef Francesco Apreda has a bright future ahead of him, all we need to do is follow him as he evolves and grows as a chef. The one Michelin star he has been awarded is fully justified. And there will be more!

Σάββατο, 16 Ιανουαρίου, 2010

Today’s dish is good for the wet windy weather we had in Athens today. It is warm, soft, crunchy, tasty, and nutritious, to mention a few of its attributes! If you do not believe me, the only thing you have to do is try for yourselves!

Rooster is the integrating element of the dish. Get a big one, the bigger the better!

The next building element of the dish is bulgar wheat. We prepare a mix for the filling of the bird, and then we use it also to supplement the dish with the broccoli.

For the mix we need fresh onions, red and green peppers and parsley, salt and pepper.

The third element of the dish is pancetta. Today I did not have cured belly so I used fresh. It does not really matter, as long as it is really fresh.Make sure you take out all the bones. You can mix them with the wheat for extra flavor.

Finally, you need a nice piece of broccoli to provide the vegetable aspect of the dish.

After you stuff the bird, you add the bulgar wheat around it, the pancetta on top of it to provide extra moisture, and the broccoli on top of the wheat all over the baking tray. Sprinkle generously with coarse sea salt and pepper, rosemary and fresh oregano, and you are ready for roasting.

Roasting is the most difficult part of preparing the dish. For the first 20 minutes you need strong heat (250 degrees Celcius). Then you cover with foil the whole tray, reduce the heat to 200 degrees for another 20 minutes. Finally, remove the foil and «grill» for another 10 minutes.

What you see on the photo is that the pancetta pieces have been removed from the bird before the «grill» in order to give some color ot the skin and make it crunchy.

The result was a moist, tasty bird, on top of the bulgar wheat bed which was full of all the flavors, of the bird and the pancetta. The broccoli added a tone of sanity to the dish, while the pancetta was delicious. The fatty bit was crunchy (because of the «Grill») and the meat moist and flavorful.

Σάββατο, 9 Ιανουαρίου, 2010

Today I continue my pursuit of simple light meals that will counterbalance the Christmas and festive days excesses.

When I got back home last night, my good friend from Georgia had brought to me freshly prepared potato and onion piroshkis. I immediately thought that I should make a simple dish with them.

The skin of the piroshki is very light and fluffy, and the filling is minimal and also light. This is why they are versatile and easy to combine with other ingredients.

Although out of season in the winter, in Greece we can buy eggplants that basically come from Crete. Especially this year, the winter is a joke, with temperatures well above the season’a averages. So I could not resist to violate the rule of using only seasonal ingredients, and I grilled the eggplants, and seasoned with olive oil, sea salt and pepper.

My good fisherman had already given me fresh squid of medium size, which are ideal for the grill.

After grilling the squid, I served with a touch of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, and chopped parsley.

This is a minimal dish, but nevertheless it is full of flavor and varied textures.

Κυριακή, 3 Ιανουαρίου, 2010

After all the meat eating of the festive days, it is essential to taste something lighter but tasty! Out of this need I came up with this simple but delicious dish that requires a large fresh fleshy octopus.

I boil the octopus in very low heat (45 minutes per 1 kilo). I let it rest and then cut the tentacles that I will use and grill them until they get the crispy surface on the outside, while they remain juicy inside. I then slice them and dress them in olive oil with a touch o lemon.

The other essential ingredient is a mix of chopped onions, tomatoes and parsley.

I make my own pitta bread in a rather sneaky way. I prepare a mix with flour, yeast, salt and vinegar, but leave it on the watery side. After it has rested for one hour I prepare the bread as if it were crepes, in other words I «fry» the mix in a non-stick pan.

After 3 minutes I take it out and place it on a baking tray in the oven for another 10 minutes.

The final step is the most satisfying and has to be done with your hands only. Lay onions, tomatoes and parsley on the bread and then octopus on top of it. Roll it tightly and slice in four parts.

Sprinkle with olive oil, a bit of salt and lemon and enjoy one of the freshest and most tasty simple dishes!

Donald Knuth, Stanford University

"I have always liked the concept of universities as they were in Ancient Greece, where folks who had something cool to say would just come and say it. It wasn't about recognition; the impetus was the thought that you were resonating with ideas."